1987. Különkiadvány, 1987.10.01 / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2

areas and the Central government's objectivea. This solution, bovever, had aerioua conaequences.- It gave the civil-service intellectuals running the government maehinéry an opportunity to turn Central reallocation to their ovn advantage, in everything from the educational systetD through the allocation of State housing to the development of settlements.- In the bureaucratic bargaining, the intereet6 vere usually disregarded of the strata that vere socially dovn and out, economically replaceable, and politically unable in principle to express their discontent. The régimé supported the strata that already vere upvardly mobile, and it left the group6 stuck at the bottom to fend fór themselves. As 8 rule, something vas done on behalf of these groups only vhen their raggedness vas starting to cause disruptions elsevhere. (Fór example, the administration began to pontificate about "protecting the population-retaining ability" of the small villages, vhicb had been condemned to extinction, only vhen the urbanization probléma cauaed by migration to the citieB vere beginning to overburden the st8te budget.)

The consequences vere the more serious becsüse both the "socialist achievements" and the blessings of "consensus" vere videning the gap betveen tbose vho vere stuck belov and the upvardly mobile.- Aggravated by the rules of average pay regulation, industrial expansion that preserved the traditional structure of manpover absorbed in production much of the traditionally poor as uneducated and unakilled labor, and simultaneously preserved them in that State.- Only a fraction of this stratum, those in their physical prime, found a source of income in the second economy. Fór the most part this Btratum vas excluded alsó from the advantages available at the vorkplace.- When the plán fór the development of their settlement deprives the members of this stratum of their jobs, school and transportation, they are the least able to abandon the decaying viliágé, having nothing to sell and nothing saved vith vhich to move on. They commute [veekly or fortnightly] and dÍ6Íntegrate in their homeless vay of life.

The most serious chronic symptom of the social crisis is the splitting of society intő tvo: a majority living orderly lives, and a minority of social outcasts living precariously.- The rise in criminality is linked to the constant reproduction of this precarious segment and to the vorsening of its situation. This segment accounts fór a significant share of the pool of alcoholics, and it alsó contributes to the spreading of epidemics.- Society's split intő tvo directly affects the demographic trends. The fact that benefits are tied to employment and earnings reduces the large families to poverty. And, in the stuck strata, the average number of children per family tends to be much higher, vhich again has its demographic consequences.

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